Moons of the World
'Major Moons' The major moons comprise of Corona, Bellus, Gloria, Solum, and Aethos (previously Eous). They are named so because of their mass, with the five of them comprising ninety five percent of the total mass of all the moons combined. With the exception of Regnum and Sapienta, the major moons are the only moons visible to the naked eye, and thus most of the mystical and cultural influences revolve around them. Corona The largest of the moons of the world. Corona is the sixth closest moon, and is so large compared to the others that the next largest moon, Bellus is only half its size. Corona shines with a bluish white light and is the brightest object in the night sky and is largest factor that affects the tides. Its surface has lots of craters as well as volcanoes, and about 30 percent of it is covered in liquid water. It also has an atmosphere, thought to be mostly made up of nitrogen, with storm systems visible to the naked eye. Bellus The second largest of the moons. Bellus is the fifth closest moon, and it earned the distinction of being the perfect moon. With a perfect spherical shape, it reflects a pure white light and its surface is devoid of any crater. Theories abound as to why this is so, with the most popular being that Bellus has a super dense atmosphere that disintegrates incoming space rocks before it hits, though how the moon could keep such an atmosphere when Corona twice its size possess a fairly weak atmosphere compared to Bellus's is a mystery. Another says that Bellus's icy surface hides a waterworld underneath, such that impacts are easily filled up within a short period of time. Another interesting feature of Bellus is that the light it reflects disperses around it, forming something like a halo. Gloria The fourth moon, Gloria is closest of the major moons. It shines with a distinct yellow light due to its rocky surface covered mostly with sulfur. It also has lots of volcanoes, which emit most of the sulfur. Through the telescope, Gloria looks to be one giant ball of cheese, riddled with holes (volcanoes). It is also reddish around the poles and bright yellow along the equator. One prominent feature with Gloria is its inclined orbit that intersects at a ninety-degree angle with Solum's orbit, and the two intersect at both the moons' full and new moon phases. It also has a synchronous rotation, with only one side of the moon being visible to the world. Solum The seventh moon, Solum is the smallest of the major moons. It has a rather dark surface full of craters and depressions, emitting yellowish white light. Solum's surface is mostly made of rock, with no visible volcanic activity. The dark depressions on its surface, thought to be water by earlier astronomers, are believed to be remnants of ancient pools of basaltic lava. Solum is also called the hidden moon, because of its inclined orbit that intersects with Gloria's during the moon's full and new moon phases. Eous The outermost moon. Eous was the original eleventh satellite and the largest, until ten years ago, when it collided with a stray planetoid, resulting to its disintegration and the capture of the asteroid. The debris from the collision formed what is now the ring of the world. The event happened twenty years ago, and it was named the Day of the Shattered Moon. Eous got its name from its eccentric orbit that made it seem to always appear in the morning sky and rarely at night. It was regarded as being mysterious for a moon so large to be so far, leading some to speculate it had a closer orbit, somewhere maybe between Misericordia and Corona, and somehow moved out through some unknown reason. Eous shone brightly that it was still clearly visible in the daytime sky. It was thought to be made up mostly of ice and rock, with no apparent volcanic activity. Aethos The current outermost moon. It was a stray planetoid that collided with the previous moon Eous ten years ago in the Day of the Shattered Moon, the loss of momentum and mass allowing for the planetoid to be caught by the world's gravity. Aethos has the same mass as Bellus, and shines with a distinct crimson color due to its being stripped of its rocky surface and exposing the magma layer underneath. Among the eleven moons, only Aethos has a retrograde motion, due to its original entry path before it got captured. It also has a very large orbit such that it completes its cycle once every five years. Due to the rather coincidental timing when Aethos shines in full (eg The day the Benefactor's War broke out, Aethos shone a full moon, as well as when the war ended five years ago, or when the Atziluth cataclysm happened), a wide superstitious belief came about that told of world changing events to be sure to occur when Aethos is in full moon. Minor Moons The rest of the world's moons are called the minor moons. They are very much smaller than even the smallest of the major moons, Solum. In fact, all of the major moons' combined is only equal to that of Solum's. With the exception of Regnum and Sapienta, all minor moons are invisible to the naked eye. The minor moons are further divided into the Inner Moons and Outer Moons, based on their relative distance to the world with respect to the Major Moons. Inner Moons Sapienta The closest moon to the world, Sapienta is an asymmetrically-shaped moon. It has a polar orbit, and completes its cycle once every three hours. Among all the moons, Sapienta is the only one that is visible during daytime but not an night. Mentis and Misericordia The twin moons, Mentis and Misericordia are the second and third closes moons respectively. They are called the twin moons because their orbits are so close together and have the shame shape, and Misericordia always trails Mentis only a few miles away. Mentis is the larger of the two and has a more round shape, while the smaller Misericordia has a more elliptical shape. Outer Moons Aequitas The smallest of the moons of the world, Aequitas is the eight closest moon. Due to its small size and eccentric orbit, it was the last to be discovered (except Aethos). It was once thought to be only a passing meteoroid when it was first observed, and it took a few years to be ascertain that it had a full elliptical orbit around the world. Aeternitatis The ninth moon, Aeternitatis is also called the Traveler's Moon because it has such an irregular orbit that, while most of its orbit makes it the ninth moon from us, at its closest part, it approaches the world closer than Solum, while at its furthest point, it is even farther than Aethos. Regnum The largest of the minor planets, Regnum is the tenth closest moon of the world. Among all minor planets, only Regnum has the sufficient mass to pull itself into a spherical shape. Despite being an outlier, Regnum is still visible to the naked eye, shining with a bright orange red glow. Regnum's red tinge comes from the abundance of iron oxide in its surface.